Monday, March 25, 2013

ANTI-MUSLIM RUMOURS SPREAD IN CENTRAL MYANMAR

Anti-Muslim rumours projecting Muslims negatively
have spread to Rangoon from Meikhtila which has been placed under a State of
Emergency following three days of Buddhist-Muslim clashes last week.

2.While no fresh fatalities have been reported from
Meikhtila, there have been reports of fresh attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned
properties in the villages and townships around Meikhtila.

3. There have been reports of fear among the
Muslima of Rangoon, many of them of Indian origin, following circulation of
rumours regarding possible attacks on Muslims and their properties there. The
Myanmar Government has placed security forces in Rangoon in a state of alert.
There have been no violent incidents so far.

4. Muslims suspect that the attacks on Muslims and
the rumours are being instigated by anti-reform elements in the Army to
discredit President Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi.

5.The privately-owned Irrawaddy Journal has
reported as follows:“ Fear gripped
Rangoon’s Muslim communities on Sunday night after reports and rumors began to
emerge that groups of rioters were planning to attack their neighborhoods.
Muslim residents reacted by closing shops and holding nighttime patrols, but
eventually there were few incidents in Burma’s biggest city.

“Over the weekend the violence directed at Islamic
communities spread southward through Mandalay Division from Meikhtila Township,
where 8,000 Muslims were displaced and dozens of people were killed after
violence erupted last Wednesday.

“Some
Islamic leaders and Burmese activists now allege that the rapidly spreading
communal violence—which appears to pit Buddhists against Muslims—is in fact
being incited by outside interests.

“On Sunday night, reports and rumors that groups of
anti-Muslim rioters were on their way to Muslim neighborhoods in central
Rangoon first began to appear. Around midnight an unidentified group allegedly
tried to set fire to buildings in Ma U Gone, a Muslim quarter in Tamwe
Township, according to local resident Tha Aye.

“It was near midnight, around seven or eight people
came in a van and tried to set buildings on fire. When people tried to catch
them they ran away,” said Tha Aye, who is also chairman of the Union National
Development Party, an Islamic political organization.

“They threw [Molotov cocktails] at a mosque but it
was in vain,” he said, adding that the attackers revisited the area more than
one hour later, but they were chased away by residents who carried knives and
sticks.

‘News of the incident quickly reached other Islamic
communities who formed vigilante groups to patrol the streets, according to Aye
Lwin, a Muslim representative from Burma’s Interfaith Friendship Organization.

‘At around 3 am Monday morning Muslim crowds could
be heard chanting ‘God is Great’ as they marched through central Rangoon’s
Pabedan Township.

‘Residents of Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, a
predominantly Muslim market area, were also on alert after they received
repeated anonymous phone calls on Sunday night, saying that the area would be
the target of mobs.

‘Businesses in the area remained closed during a
visit by a reporter on Monday. “We want the government to help stop these
rumors and reassure the community’s safety,” local community leader Khin Hlaing
said.

‘Some Muslim leaders believed that the violence
directed at their communities was being orchestrated by outsiders. “In my
opinion, a group of people is trying to instigate public unrest by targeting
Muslim people,” Aye Lwin said.

‘”Tha Aye alleged that elements in the ruling Union
Solidarity and Development Party were involved in the supposed organization of
the anti-Muslim riots, adding that they wanted to hinder President Thein Sein’s
political and socio-economic reform agenda.”

6.Our security agencies should step up online
monitoring to prevent dissemination of morphed images of the violence by
extremist elements as happened last year after the violent incidents in the
Rakhine State.( 26-3-13)